After our weekend in Copenhagen, we traveled to Hannover to spend a couple days. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the warm comfort Hotel Marten radiated. The atmosphere of this place, especially our hotel room, can really only be described as elegant, yet comfy. After a good night’s rest, we went to the Hannover Medical School only to discover the doctor who had intended on leading us around the hospital was absent due to emergency surgery on his child. We spent the morning chatting with another doctor before heading off to the cattle clinic. Now, cattle don’t really come of much interest me, but I was aware I would be doing something one could describe as unique: placing my arm in the cow’s rectum. But once again, things did not turn out as planned and the opportunity to do this was not provided. Although disappointed, Dr. Wasser immediately assured we could conduct a similar exercise back at A&M, so I’m not disappointed.
Tuesday, January 11, happened to my favorite day of the entire trip as we visited the Heart and Diabetes Center in Bad Oeynhausen. Now there is something you should know about me; I love cardiovascular systems because it is the most fascinating body system. You can probably guess what we were doing at the hospital. Yep - watching cardiovascular surgeries. Not only was this quite exciting, but truly provided a new viewpoint on heart-related diseases because my research involves cardiovascular systems (specifically pulmonary circulation). During the morning part of the visit, I observed a double bypass operation on the coronary arteries. Interestingly enough, the bypass grafts were radial arteries rather than veins obtained from the leg. When asked, the surgeon informed us that he prefers radial arterial grafts when operating on younger patients. Anyways, this was my first open-heart surgery observation and I have to admit, watching the heart beat made me a bit queasy a couple of times. However, these feelings were momentary and I quickly got back into the right mindset. As for the actual surgical procedure, I will describe the steps to the best of my knowledge. Upon our initial arrival into the surgical room, the patient’s chest was already opened and the surgeon was ready to construct the bypass. He placed used a shunt to connect the left ventricle to an upstream portion of the coronary artery (although this is just an educated guess) so that he could sew in the bypass grafts. Afterwards, the heart surgeon left and another surgeon resumed the procedure to close and suture the chest. Really quite amazing – that’s all I can say. After a tasty lunch, we visited with the LVAD coordinator, who gave us a brief overview on previous and current LVADs and artificial hearts used by the hospital. I have seen plenty of pictures and videos of these devices, however it was truly amazing getting to actually hold them in my hands. And on top of that, a meeting was arranged with three patients who relied on these devices for survival. The first patient exhibited a weak right ventricle, so the surgeons concluded an LVAD placed on the left ventricle would be the proper solution. This is interesting because my initial solution would be to place it on the right ventricle for assistance. But because the pulmonary system has very low vascular resistance, it is just as efficient to place the LVAD on the left side. The second patient had an LVAD connected to each side of the heart due to total ventricle failure. What was fascinating about this patient was that both LVADs were external to the body, meaning we could actually see the devices function as they normally would inside the body. The third patient is alive due to the implantation of a total artificial heart, the Cardiowest. I did extensive research on this total artificial heart for the Spring 2010 project Dr. Wasser assigned to the VTPP 435 class, so seeing a patient who used it was a rewarding experience. Now, all of the devices used in these patients are merely used as a bridge to transplant. The waiting period for a heart transplant can be up to two years, making these devices essential for patient survival.
To be honest, the rest of the trip was not nearly as spectacular as surgical observations, but I still had a ton of fun, especially at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Seeing all the exhibits, especially the dinosaur bones, really made me feel like a kid again. But what was truly amazing was the Body World of Animals exhibit. Although I have seen the Body Worlds exhibition at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, it was quite extraordinary seeing the same concepts with animals because animal anatomy varies so much from species to species. My personal favorite was the elephant whose body parts were expanded apart so that you could really get an idea of what their anatomy is like. There was another model where horizontal cross-sectional slices of a giraffe had been made so that you could see what it would look like to view the body part from above. The exhibition was quite informative as well. For example, I learned that there is a correlation among animals that shows that animals tend to have a billion heart beats within their lifespan. Many smaller animals who have faster heart rates have shorter lifespans when compared to larger animals, such as elephants, who have slower heart rates. If you apply this concept to humans, we would only live about 27 years on average. Thankfully, this is not the case because we are so medically advanced.
Well, tonight should be interesting as we spend out last night in Europe. It is hard to believe the program has almost come to an end, but at the same time, I am happy to go home. I am looking forward to using water fountains again!
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